the storming the barricades egyptian protesters in the hundreds of thousands pass through security barriers caro's presidential palace the bombing morsi quits and security forces are apparently letting the. tragic twist to britain's royal pregnancy isn't this is suspected suicide from the prank telephone call adds fuel to the media frenzy surrounding the anticipated arrival of. multi-billion dollar mega sell street project finally breaks ground the pipeline from russia aims to directly satisfy europe's appetite for gas and that's in our business update a little later this hour.

around the world on screen online international news and comment live from moscow a sea of the gyptian protesters are outside cairo's presidential palace they simply pass through barricades that have erected to keep them back as car of this bill true now reports as you can probably see behind me there are hundreds of thousands of protesters who met in the middle because there are barricades on either side of the street carney chanting against the muslim brotherhood's the president and the constitution how this happened we're not entirely sure. protesters i have spoken to said that it's essential me the republican guards just stepped aside and let the people cost i first people worried that this might be a sign of some kind of trap or actually other people were saying that maybe they just broke with the hundreds of thousands of people because it has no stress the hundreds of thousands of people just overwhelmed the gods images that it will be safe to let people three. the moments you can see for

a test is stretching into the horizon as they chance against president morsi and i'm proud to stay here all night so i know the scenes are quite dban so we haven't heard of any violence yes it seems that they mean it at the moment under force of the republican guards who erected these barricades on thursday increasing this curfew after violent clashes there actually standing on top of tanks with protesters who were chanting at the protest the chanting against the mostly they don't appear to be doing anything about the crowds they have an absence here of of pro president supports his mission which actually helps in terms of violence as most of the clashes have been between rival protest groups meeting and then the scene times violence one recent development we had is the justice minister came out and said that the president might consider delaying the referendum if opposition forces agree to dialogue to engage in dialogue with preconditions was entirely sure what this statement means but it is a sign that perhaps the president is mulling over the ten to talks with opposition

forces and others not to of course the president said in his speech to the nation last night that he would hold talks with opposition leaders on saturday which is tomorrow to talk about the problems that they have with the constitution and the constitution that gratian which many scenes have said is a massive power grab by the president's reaction by the coalition of opposition forces the national salvation front was an obsolete no so really we're still in a deadlock. so we have pearl following developments in the egyptian capital for you you can check a retreat on our teeth twitter feed for the latest updates and i could see that in one of the most recent she reports that muslim brotherhood supporters are also in the gathering close to the presidential palace now there are fears of blood shed if the rival groups of protesters do need to keep up with what's going on in karl rove by checking under school. instead of uniting the

nation having morse's address seems to have divided it even further but ottawa counterterrorism advisor to the us congress says that despite the opposition's determination to make morsi back down he has a strong chance of keeping the new powers he's handed himself but the country is clearly split but mr morsi is strong because he has many institutions under his control the parliament the presidency the upper layer of the army now has replaced many officers in his calculations on december the fifteenth he will win because the most organized force now in egypt at least for the next few months is the muslim brotherhood and their allies the salafist gotten a majority in the parliament with allies of course. the president elected with allies and now some of his allies have abandoned him but they don't have the strength to organize and reach out to citizens the way the muslim brotherhood have so this looks like a recipe for a long. civil uprising against the government i am not sure that this is going to

go immediately into what people think could be a civil war unless acts of violence are going to continue day after day and that's what there's no morsi was concerned about the syrian rebels have declared the country's main international airport a military zone warning civilians and airlines they approach at their own risk the u.s. is concerned rebel breakthroughs could force the government into a chemical attack something the white house says would trigger foreign intervention washington reportedly please president assad is preparing to use chemical weapons and started college can reports allegations could be all it takes. u.s. officials said intelligence agencies have detected that assad's government has been preparing its chemical weapons stockpiles for possible use the obama administration's message to syria the u.s. is ready to act if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons there will be consequences and you will be held accountable there will be consequences. there

will be consequences we have sent a unmistakable message that this would cross a red line how does america the media quickly picked up on the alarming news of the syrian government's alleged plans citing secret intelligence for fox news confirms that syrian troops now have the deadly nerve agent sarin gas weaponized and at the ready the syrian government flatly denied the possibility saying it would not use such weapons against its people. we would not commit suicide we fear there's a conspiracy to provide a pretext for any subsequent interventions in syria by these countries during creasing pressure on syria the syrian government sure knows that if they use chemical weapons it would give nato and some of their arab neighbors who are itching to intervene in syria the green light to go ahead with their plans damascus itself says it would be suicidal for them to do so but with the fear and the hype building up over the use of chemical weapons against civilians in syria it seems

the u.s. might be preparing grounds to jump the gun on this one the jumping the gun scenario is not new for the us almost ten years ago the bush administration confidently presented false evidence to invade iraq america's cited bogus intelligence on saddam hussein's chemical weapons that never existed the invasion triggered a civil war that killed more than one hundred thousand innocent iraqis and years later all washington had to say about this was the president thought it was correct congress thought it was worth of course i regret that it turned out a lot of it was wrong in the run up to the iraq invasion the us media was instrumental in selling the case to the public the congress never had any proof ever present ever of weapons of mass destruction all came from tony blair to the bush and congress who writes now that the us has drawn a red line on syria it has made it clear it's ready to take action but how i'm not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event of.

credible evidence that the assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people but suffice it to say we are certainly planning to. take action if that eventuality were to occur two american warships are already near the syrian coast with some ten thousand. u.s. marines and dozens of fighter jets on board on top of that nato is sending american german and dutch batteries of patriot anti-aircraft missiles to turkey's border with syria meaning hundreds more u.s. and european troops will be deployed to the frontier nato says deploying patriot missiles along syrian borders is a defensive step to prevent syria from attacking turkey i don't think there's any requirement whatsoever for patriot batteries on the ground in turkey again the patriot missiles are designed to really protect primarily against incoming fire

ballistic missiles or occur if the syrians are not going to attack the turks the turks of the most powerful military establishment in the region the largest army in nato and intervention in syria will be as bad if not worse than what we experienced in iraq the pentagon said they would need seventy five thousand troops to secure syria's weapons of mass destruction the question on everyone's mind is are they seriously considering that kind of a massive intervention because that could mean another you rock coming soon and invasion that could be followed by years of bloody civil war in washington i'm going to check and. i'm not joined by lawrence wilkerson the retired u.s. army colonel who was chief of staff to colin powell when he was u.s. secretary of state now as i say you were kind of paul's chief of staff when the decision was made to invade iraq in two thousand and three he made a speech that laid out the case for that war we'll have

a listen to what he said and then i'll ask you a couple questions afterwards. the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have interacted biological weapons is the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological agents let me take you inside that intelligence file and share with you what we know from eyewitness accounts we have first hand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails . while you help prepare that speech in have since described as the biggest mistake of your life why primarily because we to the american people to the international community and of course to the members of the u.n. security council presented evidence that it was specious it was not accurate it was not true it was not valid we didn't know that. it was not just intelligence

failure it was also a massive politicize ation of the intelligence by the leadership in washington where we're currently seeing very similar rhetoric in relation to syria coming from washington will end in war again. i answered a question yesterday a journalist called me from israel and i said and i could almost quote myself i would be highly skeptical of any intelligence rendered by the one hundred forty plus billion dollar u.s. intelligence community as to weapons of mass destruction in the possession of another country there is a serious note signed up to the chemical weapons convention one of seven countries that isn't does that suggest perhaps it has a reason not to be signed up to it and it does have weapons chemical weapons well i'm not violating any great confidence or any great prohibition in the intelligence community to tell you that we've known for years years that syria has chemical weapons stockpiles just as iraq had chemical weapons stockpiles for

a while but the fact that president assad would be moving them around and preparing them for use against his own citizens within his own territory i frankly find prosperous why is it then that the u.s. really want to pursue this and they're using it for various reasons to justify not only rhetoric but also serious talk of perhaps a military invasion well a serious question that was just addressed by one of your previous comment commentators and that is why in the world would we put patriot batteries on the turkish border ostensibly to protect turkey with the largest army and the most powerful army in the region indeed one of the most powerful in the world turkey major no protection by us from that sort of thing and it would be utterly. utterly stupid for assad to attack turkey in that way so why are we doing these things that look like they aren't connected to reality unless reality is we're preparing the

ground to intervene in syria and what would be the implications if the u.s. were to intervene in syria at some saying the fallout would be far more dramatic than what we saw in iraq would you agree with that. i think that if we were to intervene in a substantial way that is to say we were to put troops on the ground marines soldiers and so forth and we were to do in syria what we began to do in march of two thousand and three in iraq those people are absolutely right in fact i think it would be even worse than iraq i think also that it would be again a back door as a war into iran which is the as you well know the real threat that we've been putting out there for years now and i think we're looking at syria and iran being a combination that we would then take on and you're talking about in my view a conflict that becomes regional and maybe even wider because we've got russia we've got china we've got other players we just mentioned the turks we've got

a significant interest in that region if iran and syria are seriously threatened by a us invasion and i think you're looking at a conflagration that's going to take at least a decade to settle and there are going to be too many victors at the end of that decade just losers and taking syria let alone iran with the american people have an appetite for the u.s. to get involved in yet another overseas will. absolutely not but i'm meeting with several congressman later in the week and that is next week and we're going to talk about this very thing about for example libya having been conducted the libya operation with no consultation with the congress at all there are some congressmen who are so concerned about this that they're mentioning words like impeachment and so forth because you are not supposed to take the american country you know we're not supposed to take us to war without the permission of the congress the

constitution pretty much says that and yet we're on this track where executives start wars at their own will and this is the kind of thing that i think is very dangerous for this republic iran would give that a different patina though because you have a congress that is itching to go to war with iran so i think you're looking at a combination here not just syria i think ultimately the target is iran just briefly what is the outs of them for syria isn't some sort of intervention justified on humanitarian grounds indeed the same justification was given for the intervention in libya many would say that nato intervention brought the conflict to an end that posed a kind of gadhafi and did the loss of innocent lives couldn't you apply the same to syria. well i would differ with that resolution in libya libya still is having enormous problems we have disconcerted mali we have a government being overthrown in mali we have al qaeda operating in the north of

mali all as a result partially at least of what we did in libya so i would be very hasn't the classified libya as a success syria iran would be even less classifiable as a success in my view what we what you would have there i think as i said is a long term occupation and creasing insurgency increasing civil war like fighting and so forth the answer in syria i think as is well minimal is the casualties are is to let the syrians settle the situation for the syrians now let me hasten to add there are a lot of iranians on the ground fighting with assad's forces advising assad's forces and since that's taking place it gives a better reason for us to take on syria because we are going to encounter iranians in syria if we go into syria one of the russian is not the time to be doing this show i did just to add that the russian point of view of course agrees with your

sentiment that let this problem be sorted out by syria do you think perhaps judging by the way we're seeing the rebels seemingly making significant ground against the assad regime do you think perhaps they could succeed in deposing a sad as they stand at the moment. i think assad's days are numbered i don't know what those numbers are i didn't think that he would last through two thousand and twelve he apparently is going to do that he may hang on he's got several factions in syria who are powerful and still with him but i still think that the best resolution for syria is a resolution brought about by the majority of the syrian people if they can get their act together to the point where the opposition as a war to assad is solid enough and has enough good leadership to topple him then that's what should happen and there should be no outside assistance and that goes for iran to iran should get its people out of syria and let syria handle its

problems by itself lawrence wilkinson really interesting to talk to. me colonel and former chief of stuff the secretary of state colin powell joining us live there in washington we appreciate your time thank you. thanks for having me. on him coming up after the break a sad turn of events amid news of the royal baby and the media could be to blame we have more on that in just a few moments. wedge issues do just what their name implies they get between people and drive them apart like a wedge and these issues seem to always take the forefront in the media it's things like abortion gun rights marijuana legalization and the weather well the weather isn't really a wedge issue but people sure talk about it way too much there's only so much room

in the national discourse and the switch issues just eat up all the time and attention but the thing is that there's a little something called the tenth amendment you know the one that says that any powers that are specifically delegated the federal government are reserved for the states and last time i checked the constitution doesn't have a special weed clause saying that marijuana has to be an all or nothing a national proposal and that goes for abortion and most of the wedge issues also there's a simple answer all these wedge issues just left the states make up their own minds but then again without wages shoes what would the mainstream media have to distract us with but that's just my opinion. me it is easy to.

say. culture is that so much about the taxpayers and i mean to say she is in a lot of people an area the rise and fall civilizations for over a century there have been predictors of western decline given the global financial crisis that started in two thousand and eight.

and it seems so for you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is all you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture. the for. r.t. life here in moscow the headline grabbing story of britain's royal baby has taken a tragic twist

a nurse who was fooled by prank telephone call at the hospital where the pregnant duchess of cambridge was being treated for morning sickness has reportedly committed suicide and adds a dark undertone to events that some are suggesting had already reached a feverish level of media coverage will for more on this that cross. in london. tragic events surrounding news of the pregnancy what do we know about this suspected suicide. it is indeed tragic bill this is the nuts that accepted the hoax call from the australian deejays that called up the hospital where kate was being treated for acute morning sickness and she accepted this call and then these deejays were later told about kate's condition now she was today found dead from a suspected suicide now all of this taking place against a backdrop of intense media speculation and a real media circus the whole past week over the years that kate middleton is pregnant we've seen discussions about whether or not kate could be having twins if

kate has twins which of the babies potential babies would be the ones succeeding to the throne if it was if they were delivered by c. section it would be the physician potentially deciding who is the successor to the british war nicky we've seen bookmakers taking bets on what this baby might be called predictions that this will already be the most popular name in britain as soon as the name is announced all this you know when we've got real news taking place in syria a political crisis in egypt and. the press much more interested in kate middleton's acute morning sickness so i've got i'm joined by cost curve in the studio here with me he's a journalist he's been following the story corps a tragic wake up call to the british media. it certainly should be. a very very tragic case the circumstances under which are still under investigation by the

police. we must this is all happening in the context as you say you of intense media scrutiny believe the daily mail when a student a story broke the daily mail devoted fourteen its first fourteen or thirteen pages of the newspaper one of the most read newspapers in the country to the royal baby the second day it was eight and use the editor of the independent came under fire for. only devoting half a page to the baby which i think was more appropriate appropriate size considering there were other news to stories. you know this week we've just had the leveson inquiry a damning report about the state of the british media and now this you know is this more criticism for the british media in the way it's following these stories while there is other news taking place and internationally well again it should be but it isn't because the media is trying to deflect attention away and is calling for the hanging of the to australian great radio deejays it must be you must understand i

don't think in my view leveson was a very damning report to say the british media because and didn't deal with corporate control and didn't deal with the content of the actual media of the actual print and editorial decisions i think you know there were there were serious serious questions to be asked about the amount of coverage that this this issue has received over the last week when there are serious other other other topics to be discussed now this media circus all come to a very tragic tragic end today do you think this horrific development is going to fuel the calls of those you say that the money he should be abolished. because the media the media is treating this as status quo the media is not questioning the amount of coverage they are devoting to your family and what consequences this may have been if the individual's life speculating here but we can we can you know we can assume there must be a correlation between the nurses said and the intense media scrutiny following. the

call which was also replayed on the mainstream on mainstream news channels. you know whether or not the media should probably devote more of its time and space to other political real political questions that affect people's lives rather than heavily subsidized rich family is another question unfortunately don't think the media especially. especially since you believe. family is played very well in the media but yes questions should certainly be asked well there you have it they are a very tragic and now incident of what should be very happy news and joy for news of kate middleton's pregnancy so we've had the jugular duchess of cambridge expressing their deep sadness over the death of the royal the hospital where kate was being treated paula thanks very much indeed for that reporting live from london

now let's have a look at some other news from around the world five people were taken to hospital after a one metre high tsunami hit the province in japan and it was triggered by a seven point three magnitude earthquake that struck the eastern coast with aftershocks felt as far away as the capital tokyo the tsunami alert has now been lifted in two thousand and eleven a similar quake in the same area caused a meltdown at the fukushima nuclear plant. and some mass party has invited to his twenty fifth anniversary celebrations in gaza the move is seen as a sign of warming relations between the parties of disputes caused by hamas winning power in gaza six years ago is believed israel's latest military operation which killed over one hundred people has pushed the two to cast aside differences. india has warned it's prepared to use force to secure its economic interests in the south china sea that's after allegations that beijing are deliberately hampered its rivals oil and gas exploration efforts as reports if they can't settle their dispute amicably there are others who are ready to take full advantage. as china

and india rise economically their military muscles are growing as well both need energy to keep that kind of growth going and that may be putting the two asian giants on a collision course because of the mess that nationalism the indian government cannot afford to be seem to be weak in dealing with china obviously a higher power with government. over two hundred billion barrels of oil and large amounts of natural gas that's more than the vast majority of the world's energy rich nations have all hidden under the south china sea china claims most of the territory for itself but india has also managed to get access by buying a stake in a vietnamese gas field shortly after hanoi accuse chinese boats of sam with dodging exploration india warned it's ready to use force to defend its interests hopefully as i said the should not be leading to a longer term conflict but you know it's inevitable because both of

these countries now large and visions are becoming global actors and players both china and india have been pumping billions of u.s. dollars into their armies and navies holding drills on a regular basis and beijing has also announced its police will soon start to board and inspect foreign vessels surely the vast oil reserves in the south china sea are just too big of a cash for neither china working here to pass up because i really want to accomplish between the two economic power houses so it's a really a game that neither can win the two asian giants can't afford any weaknesses and that would make it easier for other countries to take a bite of the vast resources the u.s. has long been increasing its economic and military presence in the region this in yes there west strike to depict this expansion by both in the china terms of the last.